Rencontre de cancerologie francaise 2012

Following the increase number of patients with cancer, National Political Projects were created and contributed to the humanization of care in oncology by the commitment and training of psycho-oncologists. In the Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc of Brussels, a psycho-oncology unit has been created, allowing better support of patients recently diagnosed with cancer. To optimize the psychological care, a systematic meeting with the psychologist was created within our institution. It is structured by three objectives: (1) present the psychological care, which is integrated in transdisciplinary support, (2) assess the needs, the level of distress and patients resources, and (3) allow the emergence of a demand for psychological support from patients. The main objective of this thesis is to evaluate the interest of a systematic meeting with a psycho-oncologist for recently diagnosed cancer patients. Through research conducted in cancer patients, we have assessed the impact of this intervention on the needs, the level of emotional distress (including anxiety and depressive symptoms) and coping strategies for patients. We also assessed the perception by patients of the clinical psychologist because the literature showed that fear of stigma is related with a possible barrier to psychological consultation. We thought that systematic meeting with the psychologist could promote demand of consultations from patients. The results of our studies have shown that patients were in favour of a systematic consultation with the psychologist, were satisfied with the meeting and were interested in sharing medical information. Moreover, women generally had a good perception of the clinical psychologist and required support as they deemed it necessary. When they met the psychologist systematically, they report a higher level of depression and developed more distractive and instrumental coping. Moreover, results showed that men had also a positive perception of the psychologist. Conversely, they requested psychological support only when they saw the psychologist. Systematic meeting also allowed men with cancer to report a higher level of distress. For these reasons, as the first interview with the psychologist seems to promotes psychological care we suggest that it could participle in the humanization of medical cares.

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